The Madras High Court has ordered that all buses to be procured by the State government for public transport must conform to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016, the statutory rules framed under it in 2017 and the Harmonised Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Environment for Persons with Disabilities of 2016 issued by the Centre.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N. Mala disposed of a public interest litigation petition filed by cross-disability rights activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar in 2021 with a direction to the government to also follow the orders passed by the Supreme Court on the issue on December 15, 2017 in Rajive Raturi versus Union of India.
The Bench accepted the submission of Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram that the provisions of the 2016 Act and the 2017 rules would not apply to buses that were procured before the law came into force and recorded his assertion that the government had no intention to flout either the 2016 law, the statutory rules or the harmonised guidelines.
